Courage to Lead
“Leadership is a concept we often resist. It seems immodest, even self-aggrandizing, to think of ourselves as leaders. But if it is true that we are made for community, then leadership is everyone’s vocation, and it can be an evasion to insist that it is not. When we live in the close-knit ecosystem called community, everyone follows and everyone leads.” – Parker J. Palmer
Are you actively engaged in creating communities rooted in justice, peace and ecological responsibility? Are you passionate about your vocation or cause and trying to sustain yourself in these complex times?
While the forces of exhaustion, loneliness, violence, and injustice are real and undeniable, so are the powers of human authenticity, generosity, courage, and community that rise up to meet them.
Courage to Lead® is a rare opportunity to slow down and deepen connections with kindred spirits and committed peers. This event will support courageous change makers to understand how their unique gifts can meet the needs of their communities while exploring questions of importance in their life and leadership.
Courage & Renewal retreats help you become a more self-aware, wholehearted leader. You will experience the time and space to:
Pause, be still, and disconnect from technology and the demanding pace of life while reconnecting with self, the land and community
Seek clarity in your vocation and sense of purpose and cultivate the courage and stamina to rise to today’s challenges
Honour both successes and struggles in your professional and personal life
Witness and be witnessed, listen and be listened to – without performance evaluation, statusizing, or ego
Recognize and value the genuine in yourself and others
Strengthen your skill to ask open-ended questions that help others uncover their own inner wisdom
Expanded capacity to be fully present to others in ways that affirm and heal
Greater confidence to seek or create communities of support
Move beyond either-or thinking into holding opposing truths and complexity
Stay grounded in your own integrity and inherent worth
The Courage & Renewal approach helps us actively and intentionally choose to nurture ways of being with ourselves and one another that move against the violent, oppressive forces that create personal and societal division. Instead, we choose to embody core values and practices that move us towards personal and societal wholeness, embracing the genuine within us, and honouring the inherent worth and dignity of every being. These are not choices we make just once, but ones that must be made time and again–for ourselves and our community.
In Circle of Trust® retreats, skilled facilitators help create a trustworthy and intentional space—a circle of trust—in which the noise within us and around us can subside, where introspection becomes possible. This allows us to shift from a dominant perspective of leadership that prioritizes external authorities and helps us lead from within. In large groups, small groups, and solitary settings, we will explore the many intersections of life and leadership. Using multiple ways of knowing and being, we will reflect on our leadership experiences with insights from poets, storytellers, artists, various wisdom traditions, and time on the land.
During the retreat, we’ll have valuable time to focus, without distraction, on what matters, especially our values and vision, challenges and fears. We’ll learn principles and practices from the Courage & Renewal approach that can be applied to life and leadership, helping us stay true to who we are even in the tough times. And we’ll connect with others seeking similar insights, who listen fiercely and honour each other’s identity and integrity.
We can return to Circle of Trust® retreats again and again; each experience offering new possibilities, helping us discover what brings true meaning to our lives.
This retreat is modeled on the Circle of Trust® approach developed by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal. You can learn more about “Circles of Trust” at www.couragerenewal.org or in Parker Palmer’s book, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life.
“Courage to Lead was by far one of the best professional development experiences I have had. The skills I learned have helped me in my workplace, in work I do in the community, and in my personal life.” --Past participant, Courage to Lead
“We reflected on how to contribute to an increasingly fractured world without getting lost in hopelessness at the magnitude of the issues facing us. It is this practice of resiliency that I feel is so essential for young leaders and activists to develop “ -Past participant, Courage to Lead
“This teaching reminds me to tend to myself and my health first so that I can be my best professional self. Through tending to our own inner selves and concentrating on what we can influence and control–how we see, speak, and move throughout the world–we can create an unquantifiable ripple of change and influence.” –Past participant, Courage to Lead
Maximum number of participants = 18
Leadership
Brian Braganza
Brian Braganza is a facilitator and experiential educator specializing in Leadership, Community Youth Development, Sustainability, and Masculinity. He was prepared by Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal as a facilitator in 2014 and has led retreats in Nova Scotia and the U.S. Brian has a 30-year history with the Tatamagouche Centre and has also delivered the ASPIRE Program. Brian delivers experiential programs for boys and men and co-designed T.O.N.E., Therapy Outside Normal Environments, a unique men’s therapeutic project, which builds men’s abilities to connect authentically for their health and the health of their families and communities. Brian uses trauma informed and anti-oppressive approaches in his facilitation practices. He strives to live with integrity in a fractured time. Brian lives, works and plays with his wife Tara and their daughter, near Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Brian is a wilderness traveler, published writer, builder, and musician.
Tara Reynolds
Tara Reynolds is a facilitator and leadership coach with a passion for creating trustworthy spaces that inspire and encourage individuals to listen and lead from within. Tara uses a trauma-informed and anti-oppressive approach and is actively engaged in her own work around anti-racisim and decolonization. Tara is a Courage & Renewal® Facilitator and an alumnae of the Vermont Leadership Institute. Tara has been prepared by the Canada Coach Academy as a Life and Wellness Coach and is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ACC). She and her daughter are permanent residents in Canada and are grateful to live in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw people. Tara enjoys working, learning, and laughing with her husband, Brian Braganza, who is also a certified Courage & Renewal® Facilitator.
Brian and Tara have a partnership, Tandem Truths Consulting, which supports people in moving beyond binary thinking and strengthens their capacity to hold multiplicity in their lives and leadership.
Program Cost
We acknowledge that there are systemic barriers that make it difficult to participate and access programs. We work to support those who are unable to pay the full cost of programs, while providing a living wage for facilitators and covering the costs of learning programs.
We name the true program fee to allow those who are able to pay this cost to do so. We don’t want financial barriers to prevent anyone from participating in a learning program so we also offer bursaries for registrants to choose but we only have limited funds to support attendees so please use only what you need. Financial support is reserved for individuals who are not sponsored by an organization.
Please copy the chosen promo code and enter it at check out to reduce the program cost.
*** Please note: We are sorry to inform you that at this time we are unable to offer bursaries. As soon as they become available we will be adding promo codes. ***
** Registration Deadline: July 24th
Tatamagouche Centre is grateful to live in Mi'kma'ki and work on the ancestral and unceeded territory of the Mi'kmaw people.